Practice report
IndyCar Birmingham
Barber IndyCar: Rosenqvist leads disrupted opening practice
An inconclusive opening practice session for the 10th Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama left Felix Rosenqvist’s Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda at the top of the times, as the rookie squeezed out a 69.230sec lap of Barber Motorsports Park in between three red flags.
David Malsher-Lopez
Published: Apr 5, 2019, 5:19 PM
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On a track surface still damp, and ambient temperatures only reaching 64degF, the rookies were first to emerge to use the extra set of primary tires they are granted, and Rosenqvist nailed a 119.602mph lap.
That was only 0.0454sec faster than Sebastien Bourdais in the Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan-Honda, with James Hinchcliffe only a further five-hundredths of a second further back in the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda.
Hinch spun his car on the entrance to pitlane, but his was one of the more innocuous of the incidents, as he was able to turn back around and continue down to his pit.
The first red flag flew when Matheus Leist spun exiting Turn 5, clipping the damp curb on the outside and spinning into the barrier at Turn 6. That took eight minutes of track time away, and then his teammate Tony Kanaan needed rescuing when he spun exiting Turn 16 and stalled as the car rolled down the hill.
Finally the session ended early when Spencer Pigot spun at the 17th and final turn and finished up in the sandtrap.
Scott Dixon was fourth fastest for Ganassi ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay in the fastest of the Andretti Autosport-Hondas, with Circuit of The Americas winner Colton Herta taking sixth for Harding Steinbrenner Racing-Honda.
Carlin Racing’s Patricio O’Ward was the fastest of the Chevrolet runners, clocking a 69.501sec right at the end of the session, although the Team Penske drivers, headed by Simon Pagenaud, couldn’t quite get a clear lap to set a representative time.
Takuma Sato briefly fell off the road but earned eighth for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda ahead of Alexander Rossi (Andretti).
The second practice, in which the drivers will get a chance to run on a set of Firestone ‘alternate’ compound tires (weather allowing), begins at 2.50pm local (Central) time.
Cla # Driver Team Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 10 
Felix Rosenqvist 
Chip Ganassi Racing 14 1'09.2296 119.602 2 18 
Sébastien Bourdais Dale Coyne Racing 8 1'09.2750 0.0454 0.0454 119.524 3 5 
James Hinchcliffe Schmidt Peterson Motorsports 7 1'09.3276 0.0980 0.0526 119.433 4 9 
Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 8 1'09.4373 0.2077 0.1097 119.244 5 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport 9 1'09.4452 0.2156 0.0079 119.231 6 88 Colton Herta Harding Racing 14 1'09.4987 0.2691 0.0535 119.139 7 31 
Patricio O'Ward 
Carlin 16 1'09.5007 0.2711 0.0020 119.135 8 30 
Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 5 1'09.5479 0.3183 0.0472 119.055 9 27 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport 8 1'09.8022 0.5726 0.2543 118.621 10 22 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske 7 1'09.8294 0.5998 0.0272 118.575 11 98 Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport 7 1'09.9137 0.6841 0.0843 118.432 12 12 
Will Power Team Penske 11 1'09.9440 0.7144 0.0303 118.380 13 14 
Tony Kanaan A.J. Foyt Enterprises 6 1'09.9707 0.7411 0.0267 118.335 14 2 Josef Newgarden Team Penske 7 1'10.1168 0.8872 0.1461 118.089 15 7 Marcus Ericsson Schmidt Peterson Motorsports 14 1'10.1253 0.8957 0.0085 118.074 16 21 Spencer Pigot Ed Carpenter Racing 4 1'10.1428 0.9132 0.0175 118.045 17 59 Max Chilton Carlin 9 1'10.2630 1.0334 0.1202 117.843 18 60 Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing 8 1'10.3180 1.0884 0.0550 117.751 19 20 
Ed Jones Ed Carpenter Racing 7 1'10.6279 1.3983 0.3099 117.234 20 15 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 8 1'10.7382 1.5086 0.1103 117.051 21 19 Santino Ferrucci Dale Coyne Racing 8 1'10.7595 1.5299 0.0213 117.016 22 26 Zach Veach Andretti Autosport 8 1'11.0773 1.8477 0.3178 116.493 23 81 Ben Hanley DragonSpeed 12 1'11.4122 2.1826 0.3349 115.947 24 4 Matheus Leist A.J. Foyt Enterprises 1 1'33.6477 24.4181 22.2355 88.416
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